how chess taught me the joys of simple connection
There is a man and a young boy about 7 or 8 sitting at a table next to me. It’s not immediately apparent if they’re related or not, but there is a joyful familiarity between them.
The man is trying to teach the boy how to play chess.
It takes me back to when one of my father’s friends taught me how to play chess at a similar age. I remember sitting intently, listening to the rules, loving how every piece had a purpose and a uniqueness (though I thought then and I think now that the knight makes no sense — 2 and a half? It’s tetris-like movement doesn’t match up to the nature of the horse).
But I digress.
Chess to me was a beautiful game because it was nuanced in ways that checkers could never be. It was elegant in a way that video games were not. And it was simple in a way that board games never managed to be.
Chess was not a child’s game necessarily but I loved that my uncle taught me like an adult. Like a peer.
And that’s what caught my attention this morning. The man is talking to the boy like a peer. Carefully explaining complicated moves and strategies while the boy takes it all in a like an eager sponge.
Amidst the iPad games and the Dora videos and the bedtime stories I’ve forgotten the simple, focused, “adult” connection that can exist between an grown person and a child. It reminds me how kids don’t look to be coddled. That they just need to be seen and acknowledged for themselves.
This little game of chess has reminded me how much I valued that as a child and how much I need to give that to my own children.
I can’t wait to teach my daughters chess.